This lot is closed. Bidding ended on 5/11/2001.
An overlooked aspect concerning the infamous Chicago "Black Sox" scandal of 1919 is that gamblers made the team their target because nobody ever expected them to lose. The White Sox made this assumption widespread in 1917 when they fielded one of the most imposing teams baseball has ever seen. They won 100 games that year, won the AL by 8 games, then roasted the New York Giants in a 6-game World Series. This truly epic, panoramic team photograph of the 1917 team sports images of confident young men on a high before the great fall that would taint many of them forever. The 17" x 38" photo is framed under glass in an elegant 21 ½" x 43 ½" wood frame ready for hanging. The color of the photo is a classic light-green, dollar-bill style. The team is posed in a single line on their home field of Comiskey Park, identified by name on the lower region under the photo. Baseball historians will gravitate on the figures involved in the later scandal, who while found not guilty in a court trial of fixing games were banned from the game for life. All eight accused men were on the 1917 team. The biggest name among them was the legendary "Shoeless" Joe Jackson, who stands fifth from the left leaning on his bat. The others were Buck Weaver Swede Risberg, Ed Cicotte (sixth, seventh and eighth from the right), Fred McMullen and "Lefty" Williams (second and third from left), "Happy" Felsch (twelfth from the left), and Arnold Gandil (ninth from the left). The photo also includes Hall of Famers Red Faber, Eddie Collins and Ray Schalk, and cut-outs of owner Charles Comiskey and two other team executives. There is some slight chipping on the wood frame but the overall good condition of this piece lends stature to it as an historical landmark.